


hornblower/kennedy 1

by romanticalgirl



Series: December Ficlets 2007 [34]
Category: Hornblower (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 20:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/752955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/pseuds/romanticalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted 12-22-07</p>
    </blockquote>





	hornblower/kennedy 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 12-22-07

Horatio lies on his side on his bunk, staring down at the cot on the opposite side of the small cell, watching Archie sleep. There is something peaceful in his sleep, and it takes a few moments for Horatio to recognize it. The last time he’d seen Archie sleep peacefully had been on the Indy, before Jack Simpson had set foot aboard the ship. Every sleep since then has been laced with fits of tossing and turning, soft moans and quiet terrors haunting him or fever gripping him solidly and sweating what little rest he could get out of him.

Things have changed a thousand times since they’d given Archie up for dead, since Horatio gave up the opportunity to avenge both Clayton’s and Archie’s deaths with a bullet. He has become something more than the boy he’d been when he’s set foot on Justinian - killed and wounded, fought and feared and more. Always more. Archie has moved from place to place but not moved forward, wrapped up in ghosts. He’s more than the boy he’d been as well, but Horatio isn’t sure that the changes he’s made are ones that he can live with now that he knows Horatio has no intentions of letting him die.

“You’re staring,” Archie whispers softly in the darkness, the hint of his smile catching the pale stretch of moonlight. 

“Am I?” Horatio raises up onto his elbow and continues looking down at Archie. “Why did you come back here with me?"

“You gave my word.”

“It was not mine to give.”

“I think you’re quite wrong in that, Mr. Hornblower. A commander, a leader, needs to know that his men have his back. He needs to know that they will guard it from the enemies as well as from their own sharpened swords.”

“Taking your freedom would not have been a knife in my back, Archie.”

“Merely a blow to your honor, which I find to be far more painful and potentially deadly in your case, Horatio.” Archie sits up and leans against the wall, his eyes hidden in the shadows. “Do I wish to be surrounded once more by prison walls? No. But here I am no longer alone and as any good lad of society knows, much better to be at the most awful dinner party of the season than dining alone in one’s home.”

“Are you a lad of society then?”

“No,” Archie laughs. “But I would rather be here with you and our men than on the Indy alone.”

“I think this place has made you quite mad, Mr. Kennedy.”

“Not mad, Horatio,” Archie assures him as he shifts in his bed and lies down once again. “Just lonely.”


End file.
